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11 December 2011

Another experience of that wonderful institution, the Parkrun: my sixth, not my fastest, but a good feeling. An institution that needs to be even more widely known, I think.

At home I wondered whether compression tights and long ordinary running tights would be too warm, compensated for them with a short-sleeve teeshirt, put a fleece on top to get me to the start, added my running hat and then as an afterthought put running gloves in my pockets. But I had forgotten that we have our own microclimate and the Thames Valley can have completely different weather. It's just as well that I decided against huaraches ....

Rye Meadow was white with frost, and my choice of conventional footwear was fortunate - though several friends enquired about the sandals. How mad do they think I am? I was only out for a gentle jog, anyway, as my resolutions about getting fitter and faster always seem to run into that hard-to-overcome barrier called "work". It's an inevitable consequence of portfolio working - though this week I finally unloaded one of my six jobs, one that was fun at times but never remunerative. That ought to leave a little more room for the three new ones that I added to the portfolio this year.

I put the fleece aside so I had a layer (half a layer) to put on when I finished, but kept all the other stuff on, as John's photo shows. I plodded round at an erratic pace, as the splits show - when I spotted John at about the 4K mark I put on a turn of speed for the benefit of the camera, which might account for why mile 3 was so much faster than mile 2 (which was all about consolidation, I suppose): mile 1 is all about ensuring I'm not going to be blocked later on by optimists or inexperienced runners who've set off too fast, meaning that I have to set off much too fast. As things settled down after the initial rush to get onto the narrow riverside path in a good position, we left the bright winter sunlight in which we'd started: the eastern end of the course was in shade. Cliff, a few yards behind, was moved to exclaim, loudly. The conditions certainly weren't ones to hang around in. Maybe that explains my splits too: mile 2 was the sunny part.

I spent the rest of the day as a white van man, which is fun occasionally. Last weekend it was a nail gun, this weekend we hired a Transit. Perhaps I should go through the whole gamut of fun things to hire.